SSDs
are finally coming into their own as storage capacities go up and
prices come down. Both OCZ and Super Talent have pulled the wraps off
new SSDs today.

The OCZ offerings include the new Vertex
2 and Agility 2 SSDs. The SSDs have blazing fast read and
write speeds thanks to a new controller. Both drives are capable of
up to 285 MB/s read and 275 MB/s write speeds. The main difference
comes in the IOPS performance of the two SSDs.

The Vertex
2 is capable of 50,000 IOPS while the Agility
2 is capable of a much lower 10,000 IOPS. Both of the SSDs will
be offered in 50GB to 400GB capacities and will start shipping on a
few weeks at undisclosed prices.

"OCZ’s original Vertex
Series of solid state drives have become a top seller due to the
product’s exceptional performance and reliability,” said Ryan
Petersen, CEO of OCZ Technology Group. “The new Vertex 2 and
Agility 2 SSD lines continue that tradition by incorporating the
latest controller and firmware technology. They are an excellent
solution for customers who are looking for improved transfer rates
and best-in-class input/output per second (IOPS) for a wide range of
uses, ranging from entertainment to workstation and tier 2 storage
applications. Additionally, this new product line highlights our
continuing determination to be the market leader in the high
reliability memory and flash-based storage market."

Super
Talent has also unveiled a new SSD called the Value
SSD family. The SSD is offered in 8GB to 64GB capacities and
has sequential read performance of up to 152MB/s and sequential write
speed of up to 97MB/s. Pricing is unknown, but these should be very
cheap SSDs considering the performance numbers and that similar OCZ
Onyx SSDs are right at $100. The drive uses MLC NAND and
uses SATA 3Gbps connectivity in a 2.5-inch form factor.

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